Oregon basketball: After three home losses, will Ducks get better in the Bay?

FileErnie KentEUGENE - This weekend, the Oregon Ducks get their wish: They are going to the Bay Area. They will travel to Berkeley, where they have won once in the past 10 years. Then they go to Stanford, where their last win came before any of the current Ducks were born.

"I'm anxious to get 'em out," said coach Ernie Kent, who wants to "eliminate all the noise" that has been stirred up in the current three-game losing streak. "When teams are struggling, the best place to be is on the road."

The Ducks (10-7, 2-3 Pacific-10 Conference) are coming off a confidence-sapping, winless, three-game homestand in which they never enjoyed so much as a one-point lead. But they still find themselves within a game of second place, a game and a half from first.

Oregon is 2-0 on the road and 0-3 at home in the league this season. The other nine teams are a combined 16-8 at home and 9-16 on the road. It would stand to reason that such a young conference would have better success at home; so Oregon's season doesn't exactly stand to reason.

Fans have turned on this program more quickly than Tajuan Porter can pull the trigger on a 25-footer. One fan burned his season tickets and put the video on YouTube. Other fans made their statements by not showing up at McArthur Court: Only Oregon State and the postseason-ineligible USC Trojans are drawing fewer fans than the Ducks' average of 6,727.

So on the road they go, after wins at Washington State and Washington to start the Pac-10 season. So what's the difference in this team from those two wins and those three losses? The Ducks have slipped on defense, they have had trouble initiating their offense and their confidence is shot.

"I think I'm ready to go back on the road," Michael Dunigan said, "(to) figure out what we need to do mentally."

Guard Garrett Sim, who made three of his four shots in Pac-10 play but has gone 1-for-18 since, said he finds himself shutting down the laptop to avoid the negative press and the fan venting.

"You're around the campus every day, you're around your peers, and they know how the basketball team did," Sim said. "It's tough, but you've got to stay together."

Sim got the start Saturday against Arizona as Kent tried to jump-start Malcolm Armstead's game. None of the guards played as well as they did in Washington.

"I just have to not let the last few games dictate how I think of myself and my game," Sim said.

The sputtering offense has meant frustration for Porter, who is 3-for-18 in the past two games, and for Dunigan, who averaged 21 points and 13 rebounds in the Washington sweep, 10 points and 5 rebounds in the three home losses.

Kent said he expects Dunigan to draw more double teams, which would open things up for Porter & Co. on the outside and lessen the urge to force things. But first, the Ducks have to get the ball to Dunigan, and that will take a little patience. Cal, though, would figure to be a favorable matchup for Dunigan.

"I'm pretty sure I can outrun the big boy, so yeah," Dunigan said when asked if he felt more touches coming his way.

The big boy is Cal crowd favorite Max Zhang, a 7-foot-3 center who comes off the bench. The Bears start three forwards, and muscular 6-8, 240-pound senior Jamal Boykin probably will have to deal with Dunigan most often.

But Cal also has an all-senior backcourt, and the Ducks have been hurt by experienced perimeter players during the losing streak. Arizona and Arizona State crowded Porter, forcing him to put the ball on the floor. Oregon State's Seth Tarver pressed the rhythm right out of Porter and Armstead.

Teondre Williams said the Ducks need to get out and run a little more, to take pressure off the shooters. Oregon had a total of two fast-break points in the three-game slide, and the Ducks are 9-2 when outshooting opponents this season and 1-5 when they are outshot.

"We're leaving too many basketball plays on the floor," Kent said.

So in practice, the Ducks have tried to work it around. They even have fought some -- showing either frustration or that grit that Kent said was missing.

Dunigan, becoming more vocal in practice, said the players are holding one another accountable more. LeKendric Longmire certainly did that after Saturday's loss to Arizona.

"I'm one of those guys that will get on somebody if they're not making the right rotation or continuing to get blown by up top, on the wing or whatever," Longmire said.

It's a delicate stage of the season: The Ducks need accountability without sniping, aggressiveness without ball-hogging. Most of all, they need a win as another winless Bay Area trip would mean a five-game losing streak and a whole lot more "noise."

"We've got to stay together and not start pointing fingers and turning on each other," Sim said. "We just hit a little road bump."

Actually, it was a home bump -- but still big enough to put the wheels in danger of falling off.